At All Times! Dublin




            

I walked into the History Exhibit in Dublin's City Hall.
"Welcome!", said the receptionist. " And where are you from?"
"Ohio" I replied. "Dublin, Ohio!"
"Oh, that's lovely," she replied.
"Yes, it is," I agreed.

                        

I arrived to my street in Dublin in the early evening a couple days ago. The street was more than deserted and the shops were shuttered and it appeared as if everyone had fled. I was delighted to see the street on Saturday morning. It seemed as if a street fair had decided to appear. Hundreds of people. The shops had their metal street screens rolled up and everyone was either eating, drinking coffee or examining things to be sold.

                              

Daughter Makaila has now flown in and we're walking through the city. Even though I had been to St. Patrick's Cathedral we journeyed down an older street to reach the church.

                                

St. Patrick's in the late afternoon light. I was hoping to catch some sort of Mass or Evensong on this Saturday afternoon. I was told that they don't do church on Saturday afternoon around here. (Don't tell that to American Catholics.)

                      


THE tourist district. The district with all the bars and restaurants and shops...is called Temple Bar. It's not a single bar named Temple Bar...though I seem to recall several bars named Temple Bar. 

                          
  
And I guess the district is named for the Temple family but maybe it is named after a Temple Bar district in London...or something.


You can Google it...but it's still confusing. We opted for a bit calmer of an area across the river. 

           
We ate at the Legal Eagle...(wifi password...Thetiltedwig. I suppose in reference to the wigs that barristers wear in court. Or maybe it was a local double entendre. Maybe or not) It was a fine establishment though, whose featured beer for the week  (in this city known for Guinness Beer) was from....Michigan!

                 

While Makaila seems to be pondering the meaning of life at the River Liffey, she's really watching the EMT's over on the boardwalk attend to a man who had fallen down, or ill or collapsed. (He later stood and walked to the ambulance.)

                      


Gelato by any other name.....

                   

                                  

                         

              

On first inspection, judging by the number of churches and the number of bars in this city, I would have been hard pressed to say which has more.

                            
But after a couple of days here....I can tell you which has the most adherents by far.


                

Just not sure what one can or cannot do "At all times" according to this sign.

                         

                            My 401(k)

That's it for Dublin town...and it too, is lovely.

Peace,  Bob



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Destination Anywhere - The Wrap-Up

Image
Said to the man at the railroad station I want a ticket, just for one..... The best and the confounding of my Sabbatical...I enjoyed the mix of languages... getting locked out of my hi-tech hotel and having to find another hotel entirely...running to meet trains....trying to remember which currency to use for this particular country...asking endless questions about train names and destinations....simple cappuccinos that one lingers over for an hour and nobody hassles you...the eternal hunt for wifi, which is easy to come by these days...surprises like when your RR car suddenly is shunted onto an ocean going ferry... Good times....but here is a mix of experiences  over the past four weeks with no discernible theme.  My wrap-up             Here's the thing.... I found that a cappuccino a day...especially in the morning...gave me a place to go to and enough caffeine to start my day plus not too much to keep me awake at night. Rule of thumb....small c...
Read more

Victoria Terrace. Edinburgh

Image
The plan was to reach a street near the Royal Mile where there are all kinds of shops and then find a simple restaurant for lunch. Walking along the crowded streets we spied a small place with a name something like Maud Mcgilicutty's Tea Room. What could be more Scottish! We stopped. Had an excellent lunch. Listened to music on their radio by Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons and the Doors and Sam Cooke. What could be more Scottish! We complimented the owner, noted a symbol hanging from the counter and asked if she was from Turkey...she smiled and said that she was from Istanbul and wanted to take her kids to Disneyland in Florida. What could be more Scottish!                    And so it began.                          Churches and massive cathedrals in Europe in Europe are faced with a conundrum. Do they charge admission for the hoards of tourists to see their magnificen...
Read more

< Drive On Left!

Image
Standing at the Rental Care Desk as we are about to get our car...... "Can you drive a stick shift?" The Agent asks me. "Yep' "Do you know that we drive on the left side of the road?" "Yep" "That's lovely...I think you are good to go!"  He hands me the key. Makaila and I head out into the traffic as she reaches for the smelling salts. I hate backseat and front seat drivers but I told Makaila...."You are free to constantly remind me....Drive on the left, drive on the left." And she is free to constantly remind me of the beside-the-street-corner traffic lights in Ireland...as opposed to the hanging-over-the-middle-of-the-intersection traffic lights in the U.S. We put Dublin, literally, in our rear view mirror and headed out to M50, I believe. We've got an Air B&B set for our first couple of nights. I don't understand....the speed limit on the highway...rather comparable to say, Hiway 33 in Ohio....is, something or...
Read more